Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with aim

Chat in Relationships?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:56:49 -0800

How do you deal with instant messaging early in a relationship? I've just started dating a woman that I've known for a about a year. We both use GChat and tend to be logged in fairly frequently.

Given that it's early in the relationship, it seems overbearing to be communicating every day. Email is just as instant (in our age of BlackBerries at least), but a chat program has a "presence" that makes it seem weird to be logged on all the time without saying anything.

So far I've dealt with this in part by not being logged in so much, but also this change in behavior (and she knows how much I was logged in before) seems odd. How have you dealt with this?

Other details that might matter: it's long distance, so we don't see each other that frequently, so far it's been visit once a month, talk on the phone a little more frequently than once a week, e-mail and chat more in between.

Netgear Wireless-G Router WGR614 & AIM

twiggy32 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:30:14 -0800

How do I get my new Netgear Wireless-G Router WGR614 to play nice with AIM? I just installed a new Netgear wireless router and everything seems like it is working fine. However, I have to use AIM at home for work stuff, and I cannot connect. It tries to connect several times without success, and then AIM tells me I tried to log on too many times. I tried using AIM, iChat, and Adium, so it seems to be a problem with AIM not the chat program. I think this may have something to do with opening the right port, but I am at the limit of my technical abilities and my IT guy at work told me it was probably just because Macs suck, so no help there. Any advice?

Reuniting with a headmaster for an expensive school in Australia named Ron..

Quarter Pincher — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:54:53 -0800

I'm looking for a forgotten chat-friend from over 10 years ago. All I remember is that his first name is Ron, and he was a headmaster at a school in eastern Australia, got to drive a Aston Martin as a work benefit, and once took a group of students to visit America in the Seattle area. He gave me some advice that I later took up, and would like to tell him how much of a difference (good) it's made. I might remember his last name if I saw it. Is there a way to find a list of headmasters of all schools in eastern Australia, that are wealthy enough to offer their headmasters an Aston Martin as a company car? I recall him having told me the name of the school and I looked up the site just once, back then, so I might vaguely recall that if I saw it, also. Any ideas on where to start looking?

IM to Mobile service not working

Defenestrator — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:10:05 -0800

I am trying to use AOL instant messenger's IM to Mobile service. My girlfriend has always sent text messages to my phone while on her aim using +1(insert my area code)(insert my phone number). It stopped working out of nowhere. It's only with her screen name. I've tried quite a few solutions. Help? She doesn't have unlimited texting, so it saves her texts while at home to send me messages from her screen name to my phone. This has worked for probably a year now. Recently I switched to another phone (using a SIM card, I have AT&T) and then back to my original phone shortly afterward, we suspect this is when it stopped working.

I can send messages to her screen name via texts using the 6 digit number, but she can't send anything to me on her screen name. On ANY other screen name messages come through to me, but not hers.

I looked at these two pages:

http://mobile.aol.com/aolproducts/imtomobile

http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=222944

and tried to reset my mobile by sending a blank message to 265022 as was suggested. After that, when my girlfriend attempted to send me a message, it sent the message instructing me to reply with "a" to accept the message she had sent, "d" to decline, etc. I replied with "a" and nothing else came. She still cannot send me any messages successfully.

I called AT&T and the service representative tried instructing me on how to sign on with my screen name using the phone (I believe this is "IM forwarding", but its definitely not what I've been doing this whole time, which is "IM to Mobile") AT&T couldn't really help me with anything else.

I don't really want to use IM forwarding because that means my sn is shown as signed on for everyone. Plus I have to do some weird sign on stuff with my phone that takes time and doesn't even seem to be working anyways. I can't call AOL because I'm not an AOL member.

Any suggestions?

I have a Samsung SGH-A437.

Gotta Get Away

Venadium — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:19:33 -0800

Why has iChat stopped setting my status as Away? I'm not sure when this started happening but I just noticed it recently. When I set my status in iChat to any of my stored away messages, including the default "Away" one, iChat only changes my actual status message, and doesn't flag me as being Away. I have no way of telling what happens after I've been idle for 15 minutes, when I should be automatically set to Away, but I'm guessing nothing. Has anyone else had this problem? Google came up with a lot of irrelevant results, except for one person on some message board somewhere with the same problem, but even that wasn't any help since nobody there was able to help them.

Is there an AIM-to-IRC bot?

Mwongozi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:54:08 -0800

Can I talk to my IRC-using friends via AIM? Bitlbee is the exact opposite of what I'm looking for. I essentially want a bot that will sit on an IRC server, pretending to be me, and forward any private messages to my AIM client - also relaying back my responses.

I don't really care about channels, I just want to be able to MSG people.

Does this exist? My Google-fu is failing me.

Can you send an IM to a phone using AIM?

Flood — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:24:03 -0800

Is it possible to send (and receive) IMs to cell phones, using AIM? I have an iTouch. I downloaded AIM into the iTouch. The AIM product description on the app download page seems to suggest that the AIM can be used to send and receive IMs with cell phones - as long as the iTouch is connected to a WiFi signal.

Is this possible? I can't seem to get it to work. Can anyone help?

How do I use AIM on an iTouch to send an IM to a cell phone?

Tell me about cross-platform AIM encryption

trouserlouse — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:18:01 -0800

Tell me how to enable video encryption between iChat on Leopard and AIM on Windows XP. The iChat version is 4.0.5 (the latest, included with Leopard), and AIM version 5.9 on Windows XP (6.8 is not compatible with Mac video chat). Although Skype or another program would be acceptable (I've heard that Skype supports video encryption, even across platforms), staying with AIM would be definitely preferable by far because of its better connection quality.

I have checked out some options including Off the Record encryption, and I know that if all parties are using iChat you can encrypt everything through Apple's now-renamed .Mac. Outlays for new computers aren't an option, however, and I'm trying to find cross-platform solutions that aren't snake oil (*cough* Trillian *cough*). I don't mind solutions that are tricky to set up, especially if most of the complications are one-time setup issues.

Thanks!

Videochat with strangers in foreign languages

fantasticninety — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:28:30 -0800

Is there a site, or link within Aim or iChat, where you can videochat in different languages? I'm looking for a way to communicate with strangers in different languages. Two scenarios interest me the most.
1. Half and half video exchange between talking in English and talking in the other language (ie, a site specifically setup for language exchange).
2. Sites for people in that native tongue to meet up and chat (for example, Italians videochatting about the latest soccer match, or their financial woes or whatever).

This would be with people using AIM or whatever equivalent.

Where can I find statistics on the number of users for different instant messaging networks (aim, yahoo, google talk, icq, msn and so on) over time?

nolnar — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:03:58 -0800

Where can I find statistics on the number of users for different instant messaging networks (aim, yahoo, google talk, icq, msn and so on) over time? Not much extension is needed. I could just add that I'm looking for statistics that can:
- show what is the most popular IM network right now
- show what was most popular 5 years ago
- ideally show a graph that compares the user base of the networks over time

Instant message help

mr. creosote — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 07:00:36 -0800

Need help finding a quick and easy instant messaging (IM) program. Which IM program is best? I currently use Trillian but am a bit distressed over its bloat issues, which makes me concerned over security and CPU consumption issues. It also has a very confusing interface. Are there bloatless alternatives out there that are not loaded with malware? Payware is ok. I plan on using YIM and maybe AIM.

Also I want to start leaving my IM client up 24/7. Are there security issues I need to be aware of, such as payloads someone could send over IM, or a vulnerability with my IM port being open constantly and visible? I already know not to run executable programs.

Why does iChat keep disconnecting itself?

tweebiscuit — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:29:27 -0800

iChat has an annoying tendency to periodically disconnect itself from AIM and Jabber, bouncing in the dock to alert me. Reconnecting is always simple, but it's annoying. Anyone else have this problem, and ever find a solution? I'm running Leopard, but this happened under Tiger too. I'm on a desktop with an always-on connection, and it's not a firewall or router problem -- I have the firewall off, and all ports forwarded on the router. (I've also since replaced the router, and the problem's persisted.)

AIM version?

doorsfan — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:54:25 -0800

Best version of AIM? So I’m about to start a new job and for the last 8 months haven’t been able to use AIM due to the communist IT guys at current employer. Previously I would NEVER upgrade my AIM b/c of all the extra crap ad’s and what not that came with the newest versions so I ask what is the best version to use (I also don't remember what version I used, maybe 4.something)?

I don’t need file transfer or anything else I just need the ability to IM. It also doesn’t have to be AIM I just have an AIM acct that I would like to continue to use and my contacts are all on AIM
– I just do not want ad’s or news or stock quotes, astrology, recipes…

A better mobile AIM client?

Venadium — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:22:05 -0800

A better mobile AIM client for my cellphone? I've got a Razr V3m with Sprint as my provider. The AIM client they offer from download is from 'OZ Communications, Inc.' and it's awful. Pressing the 'Back' button on the phone's keypad to erase entered text too quickly closes the conversation and everything I had just been entering is gone. Switching from Uppercase, lowercase, and numeral entry with the Star key is equally as buggy. I can see that someone on my buddy list is away, but I can't read their away message. I can't tell how long someone's been online for. Also, only about 1/4th of my Buddy List loads, and the contacts that do appear aren't sorted into groups.

Is there another client out there that I can use on my phone?

Interesting Statistics from Raw Data

PuGZ — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:09:34 -0800

What interesting statistics can I make from the following data? OK, I must admit that this question excited me so much that I jumped at the idea of re-creating a similar site for all the major networks (since the original site was down and only supported AIM).

Thus far I have a working daemon and ~200 users contributing data. My daemon records when users sign in, when they sign out, when they change their status and when they change their display name (MSN). What sort of interesting analyses and graphs can I make from this? So far I have:

* Pie graphs of status break-ups (how much time is spent in each status)
* Pie graphs of login times (morning, night, etc)
* Bar charts of logins per day of the week
* General "paragraph" of stats. Example:

IM Stats has been recording data for user@domain.com for 8 days, 11 hours, 15 minutes and 37 seconds. In this period, user@domain.com has spent 13 hours, 57 minutes and 44 seconds online in sessions lasting for 39 minutes and 2 seconds on average.

In each session, user@domain.com changed their status every 16 minutes and 45 seconds or 2.33 times per session.

user@domain.com has changed their nickname 46 times, or an average of once every 4 hours, 25 minutes and 7 seconds. Given their online habits, this is once every 18 minutes and 11 seconds they are online, or 2.15 times per session.

What would you like to see in such a site, Mefites?

AIM buddy statistics

nervestaple — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:17:17 -0800

A while ago, there was a useful website that would provide online/offline statistics for all your AIM buddies, so you could see when they were on most frequently. It had interesting graphs it could make as well. Does anyone know if this or another similar web app is still around?

AIM service chanegd last week?

machaus — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:31:55 -0800

Did AOL change something with AIM statuses? When I use Adium or iChat on my Mac now, I only see people's custom status if they are set to 'away.' Other people I know are experiencing this same behavior and I can't find any documentation of why or exactly when this changed last week.

My Mac won't let anything but Safari connect to the internet. Help. Might pull out hair.

deinemutti — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:26:41 -0800

My Mac won't let anything but Safari connect to the internet. Help. Might pull out hair. I got an iMac about 1 1/2 months ago. Everything connected fine until a week ago. But the honeymoon's over, there's enough problems now to write a list:

-The Apple Mail program will not connect with my IMAP account, saying "The connection to the server (w/ my proper domain address) on port 993 failed (error 1: Operation not permitted). I cannot receive e-mails and sometime I can send them if I fiddle with the port numbers, but this hasn't worked. I also tried purging my mailbox on the server itself, deleted the account and added it in again.
It works just fine with my other Gmail account. I have already called Apple tech support and the support line for my IMAP e-mail provider, both couldn't figure out what's causing the problem. I have also scoured Apple's message board and Ask MeFi for the last week trying anything, nothing has worked so far.

-Other applications that aren't Safari won't connect.
Everytime I've loaded Firefox I get "Unable to Connect." You won't believe how many times uninstalled and re-installed this to get it to work, and failed. Ditto with Camino.

AOL Instant Messenger also doesn't wish to connect "An unknown socket error occurred: 504, 1"

Included non-connecting programs are Solarseek and Adobe downloader.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's a program I installed and then (thought) I deleted completely called GlowWorm, a firewall/internet traffic monitor program, that is playing a role. It's no longer in my apps folder, but when I hit search in finder the files are still there and they won't let me trash them properly.

I hope this all makes sense, since these issues are slowly driving me into madness. Please excuse any gaps in spelling, grammar or sheer incoherence.

Locked out of my AIM account

empath — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:53:52 -0800

Help, I lost my AIM account. I had my password for AIM saved for years on my local computer. I tried to sign on from another pc but I didn't remember the password. I then asked AIM to reset my password, but I guess I don't know what email address i used to sign up for aim like 9 years ago, so I can't get to that either, and now I can't logon from the PC where I had my password previously saved.

Am I up a creek here or is there a way to get it back?

Why are users automatically being added to my AIM buddy list?

marc10 — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:31:04 -0800

Why are users automatically being added to my AIM buddy list? I have found "buddies" on my AIM buddy list that I do not know. I always wondered how they got there. Recently, a random person started chatting with me. I refreshed my buddy list (logged off and logged back on) and noticed they were now on my buddy list.

Therefore it seems that anyone I talk to automatically becomes my buddy? How do I change this setting?

I am using iChat with an AIM account.

Is there a way to use AIM at my work with something that can hide it from being visible on my desktop and systray?

cheero — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 06:41:52 -0800

Is there a way to use AIM at my work with something that can hide it from being visible on my desktop and systray? Is there a way to use AIM at my work with something that can hide it from being visible on my desktop and systray?

Thanks!

Social Network Friend Hunt

bkdelong — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:51:23 -0800

Social Network Safari Hunt - Help me find my friends! I've recently taken the time to mass-update my contact list on both Plaxo and Yahoo! I am also an early adopter on many, many social networks. However, I am so tired of having to wait for my friends to find me and would like to import my contact list as a CSV to said service.

So far I've been able to do this with Facebook and got a note back that the folks at MySpace were fixing this broken feature of theirs. LinkedIn was an early-adopter of this concept as well.

I am very surprised that Flickr and LiveJournal don't allow for this feature - nor services like Twitter and Dodgeball. I can't figure out how to get my Yahoo! Addresses service to check for all my friends with a messenger account or a Yahoo! 360 account.

What other services DO have this feature? I stumbled across FindMeOn.com but haven't used it much yet.

Plaxo also notes which of my contacts have IM accounts - is there a way to auto-import them directly into AIM? What about Yahoo!

Help My Away Messages Grow

andoatnp — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:07:50 -0800

I am trying to create a brief weekly calendar for work of upcoming events that will be posted as an AOL IM away message that people can check throughout the week. How can I create a longer AIM away message than the default allows? I would prefer to type an away message that is about 3-4 times longer than the characters allowed. I'm running AIM v5.5.3415 and Dead AIM on Win XP. I need to stick with XP, but anything else can change. Are there any add-on programs, hacks, newer versions, other IM programs that people on AIM can view the away messages to, or browser clients (meebo?) that would allow me to create longer or unlimited away messages?

Does not have to be free. That you very much for the help.

How old is my AIM screen name?

honorguy7 — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 07:08:15 -0800

How do I figure out how long my AIM screen name has been active?

Does an IM count as a text message or not?

yellowcandy — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:47:26 -0800

T-mobile MDA & AIM/Yahoo! Messenger: what's the REAL story with paying per message? I'm a current (and pretty satisfied) T-mobile customer-- I'm not interested in changing networks at all. But I do want to change my phone in for the T-mobile MDA, which I'll use for work and to hold office hours for an online course I'm teaching (office hours run via AIM). So far, no problem.

But when I've gone in and priced plans, I've added in the Total Internet package, which gives access to the GPRS data service as well as to the HotSpot WiFi service. The issue is this: I have asked three customer service people who work for T-mobile about how AIM/Y! instant messages are carried and billed, and I have been told two different things. One says that these services are covered through the Total Internet package and are unlimited, as they are Internet services. The other says that each AIM message sent and received counts as a text message ($0.20 apiece). The third has no clue.

So I need to hear the truth from someone who is receiving actual bills, someone using the MDA and the Total Internet Plan. What's the real story, since T-mobile itself doesn't seem to know?